President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won unusual praise from netizens yesterday after he uploaded a sarcastic and self-deprecating video on Facebook in which he responded to his nicknames and ridiculed his own comments over the past eight years.
In a nearly four-minute video posted on Facebook yesterday morning, two days before he leaves office, Ma took a humorous approach to some of the most well-known nicknames given to him by netizens during his two presidential terms, such as “horse-brain jellyfish” (馬腦水母), “death-grip handshake” (死亡之握) and “deer antlers” (鹿茸).
“More than five years have passed since the creation of my Facebook fan page in January 2011, during which time the page has been ‘liked’ by about 1.67 million people,” Ma said in the video.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
Ma said whenever he has the time, he personally checks the comments on his Facebook page, some of which he said are constructive criticism, while others often left him “not knowing whether to laugh or cry.”
Sharing some of the comments, Ma held up a card showing comments from two netizens, who said a handshake with Ma would lead to certain death, calling it the “death-grip handshake.”
“I never knew my hands were so powerful. I had better take good care of them,” Ma said, before taking out a bottle of moisturizer and applying it to his hands.
The term “death-grip handshake” was coined by users of Professional Technology Temple (PTT), the nation’s largest academic online bulletin board, at the end of Ma’s first term when some netizens compiled a list of the misfortunes that had occurred in nations Ma had visited and to individuals he had met.
“Deer antlers are hair from the animal’s ears,” Ma said, after he mistakenly said in 2014 that deer antlers used in Chinese medicine were actually hair from the animals’ ears. “I admit I made a mistake and I am willing to be punished for it.”
The president then took out an elementary-school notebook and wrote three times the accurate definition of “antlers” as a punishment.
Trying to keep a straight face, Ma then read out a comment that repeated the same question a dozen times: “Are you a horse-brain jellyfish?”
“Baobao is not a horse-brain jellyfish,” Ma said, using the popular Internet slang term “Baobao” (寶寶), or “baby,” which is used as a first-person pronoun to jokingly proclaim oneself cute.
Ma concluded the video by expressing his gratitude to the netizens who have lauded his administration’s achievements, such as the increased number of nations that grant Taiwanese visa-free status, the 2013 launch of an overpass connecting New Taipei City’s Wugu District (五股) and Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅), and Ma’s historic meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) last year.
“Dear fellow netizens, although my eight-year presidential terms are coming to an end, we have fought a good fight ... I will continue to care about Taiwan after leaving office,” Ma said.
As of press time, the video had attracted nearly 220,000 “likes” and more than 23,000 comments, and had been shared about 41,000 times.
Some netizens commended Ma for having the magnanimity to mock himself, while others said the outgoing president’s approval rating might have been far less disastrous if he had posted similar videos sooner.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that Ma had long been aware of the online criticism and wanted to respond in person, but he did not know how to. He was excited when volunteer workers at the Presidential Office proposed making the video, it said.
The video was also posted on some Chinese Web sites, but sensitive terms, such as the “Republic of China,” were deleted.
A Chinese netizen said Ma’s video was interesting and shows that he is different from Chinese leaders “who live in mansions behind high walls,” while another said: “Our big boss lives in another world — I bet he doesn’t even know how to type.”
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS